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Saturday, February 20, 2010

This week I finished the Jelly Stars quilt for our retreat next weekend. I loved making this quilt. The fabric is Aster Manor by 3 sisters and it is really lovely. The colours aren't really me so I am going to make another one out of Garden Party by Blackbird Designs and this one will be for Mum.

I had quite a bit of fabric left from the Jelly Roll and so was able to make Bloom's lovely new cushion with the leftovers. It was such an easy project - her instructions are so clear. I knocked it up while Scarlett was watching Cinderella. It was the first time I have have ever made piping - it always seemed too hard, but Rosslyn's instructions were awesome and so I had some piping success! Yay!

I am in the middle of making a few other bit's and pieces with the rest of the leftovers - Mum will have a fully co-ordinated bedroom set....quilt, cushions, table runners - it's the neverending Jelly Roll!

Be sure to follow the link and check out the other Friday Finishes at Amy's.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

This is the last ghost from sewing past. I love this quilt. The fabric in it is Charleston III and it was my very first ever internet fabric purchase and I made it at a workshop with Lessa Seigle. It is unfinished because I just don't know what to do in terms of borders. Any ideas? At first I was thinking of doing some kind of appliqued border, but I really don't think that would suit this quilt. I am now leaning towards a thin brown border to frame the quilt and then some scrappy flying geese to finish it off.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Now when I say attic I am using the term very loosely. Our attic is actually just a hole my husband cut in the ceiling and then inserted a drop down ladder into. So, no whitewashed floorboards, gable windows, muslin curtains and brass bed, just a place to store things we don't want to think about until we really have to.

One of those things is this quilt. I made it using the Broken Star pattern by Debby Maddy with Hemming House fabric. It is a great pattern - the quilt comes together really quickly and the results are gorgeous. I made it for my dad for his birthday a couple of years ago but wasn't really happy with the border fabric I chose. So I wrapped it for him as is with the idea that he'd have something to unwrap for his birthday and could help me decide on a border fabric. After he unwrapped it and we laid it on his bed the extremely underwhelming response I got was......hmmph. From this grunt I just assumed that he wasn't too keen on my creation so I packed it away in the "attic" and moved on to other things.

But as you know, men can be strange. The other day, I was over at Dad's place and he was asking when he was going to get his quilt! I told him that I thought he didn't like it and so I had never finished it. Apparently I had got the wrong idea and that "hmmph" was actually a grunt of pure joy and delight and should have indicated to me to complete the quilt forthwith. So, now I am back to my original conundrum of selecting a new border fabric with the additional challenge of being a fabric detective to find out if there is any Hemming House left on the planet!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

My second UFO for the week is a cross-stitched Chrismas stocking by Shepherd's Bush. I bought it on my honeymoon in Tasmania from a cute little shop in Hobart. I intended to whip it up in time for Scarlett's first Christmas - she is now two and it languishes in the corner by my bedside table.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

This week I will be featuring the projects that haunt me. Call them UFOs, call them WIPs, call them the ghosts of quilting past. These are the ones that make me feel the heavy burden of guilt whenever I gleefully begin a new project, or buy new fabric. We all have them - they trigger your mother's voice in your head when you reach for your Visa card in the quilting shop...."finish that one before you start something new".

I have been blogging for nearly a year now and I am ready to share my guilty little secrets with the blogosphere (and harvest your ideas for how to finish one of them off).Today's featured quilt is actually the first quilt I ever made. It was done before the rotary cutting revolution and machine quilting (hence its unfinished state). By some miracle I still love the colours and the fabrics in it which increases its chances of getting off the UFO list. Forgive the creases - it has been folded up in our attic for many years.

It is a lap sized sampler and it is the quilt that started my addiction. The trouble is that I have started and almost finished hand quilting it and I never seem to have the time to just sit and stitch - I am either pushing fabric through the Janome full throttle or glued to the internet, fingers poised like claws over the key board - not the best position for hand quilting.

During the class that I took to make this quilt, the teacher said we should stitch in patterns and motifs that were significant to our lives at the time. In this vein, I was quilting while on holidays over New Year's and foolishly stitched in the date. By husband (evil man) thinks that this is hilarious and likes to bring it up in company. Often.

This is a back view of the quilt, but there it is in all its glory. '97 stitched into my very first quilt. I think it's time I got a move on and finished it off.